


De Sphaera

by temporary_sunshine



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Astronomy, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Not Beta Read, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction, Rare Pairings, Witches, he has to protect senkuu, kinrou is a knight, tsukasa is a king
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:00:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/temporary_sunshine/pseuds/temporary_sunshine
Summary: Kinrou is tasked with protecting King Tsukasa's newest acquisition: a quirky man that goes by the name of Senkuu, who some believe to be a witch.
Relationships: Ishigami Senkuu & Shishiou Tsukasa, Ishigami Senkuu/Kinrou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	De Sphaera

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I got back into Dr Stone and decided I would write something for one of my first ships in the series. 
> 
> Kinrou/Senkuu doesn't have much recognition but I still love it. 
> 
> So here it is, word vomit I wrote in one single sitting.
> 
> This work was unbetaed so sorry for any mistakes! English is not my first language!
> 
> ((I might make art for it later!))

Kinrou took a deep breath before entering the room. The small wooden door creaked heavily on its hinges, and dust exploded in his face. He sputtered in confusion before he heard something whirring inside. Swatting the dirt out of his eyes, he walked further in. He tried his best to evade all the metal equipment lying on the floor, but his armor didn’t seem to help much, bumping into all sorts of stuff along the way.

Upon shifting through countless objects, he immediately saw that there was a desk, wide enough to accommodate at least six people but so unkept it couldn’t possibly belong to someone of higher stature. Sitting on that desk, there appeared to be his charge, the man King Tsukasa had ordered him to supervise.

Kinrou walked closer, but he was surprised to see that the man was unaware of his presence. Was he perhaps too focused? Kinrou was sure he made enough noise to make himself known.

Either way, he opened his mouth to declare his arrival.

“Seems like his majesty has found a new babysitter for me.”, the man interjected, his voice strangely muffled, not facing away from whatever he was doing. Kinrou, on the other hand, bit his lip before frowning.

“I am no ‘babysitter’, Sir…”

“Oh, he didn’t bother telling you my name, did he?”, the man sighed, but a metallic chuckle could be heard within the confines of a mask if Kinrou strained his ears hard enough, “It doesn’t surprise me, considering how much trouble I’ve caused, but then again, feels a bit insulting.”

A long, seemingly eternal silence stretched between them, with the man quickly returning to his work and Kinrou quietly musing over the strange person in front of him.

“I apologize that I don’t know your name, Sir. I should have at least asked. What should I call you?”, Kinrou said, still not being affronted by the man’s lack of interest in him.

“Mmm… I honestly don’t care what you call me, knight. Some people call me a witch and I don’t mind it. Though what I do is completely unrelated to magic as we know it.”, he brushed some hair out of his face, “But, you are welcomed to call me anything.”

Kinrou was very confused over this whole predicament. His charge, someone so important His Majesty ordered to keep an eye on at all times, was not at all surprised or offended by what Kinrou had to do. If anything, he seemed slightly amused. Kinrou wanted to sneak a glance at the man’s face, wanted to know what the King’s captive looked like. The mysterious man, however, still kept his back to him and appeared to be wearing some sort of mask while he worked.

Kinrou stopped himself from snooping any further, noticing how inappropriate his actions were. He cleared his throat.

“Sir, excuse my dissent, but I refuse to call you _anything_ , as you say. I would rather you give me a name I could use to refer to you. It doesn’t need to be your real name.”, he straightened his back, even though it would go unnoticed by the other. He could hear in his mind the voice of his younger brother teasing him about how serious he was. But how else was he supposed to treat his first important mission?

The man stopped his strange whirring for a second. He seemed to ponder something, but then again, Kinrou wouldn’t have any idea of what, before the other resumed his work.

Kinrou was about to give up on the whole name ordeal, when he heard the man mumble over the noise.

“Senkuu.”

“Pardon?”

The man sighed again and finally turned around in his seat. Kinrou was greeted with the sight of a metallic mask that hid the man’s entire face. Where his eyes should be, he saw two glass circles instead, almost like a fly’s eyes would look like if they were human sized. On his head, wild curls of pale hair climbed upwards, making him seem taller than he probably was. Ignoring Kinrou’s surprise, the man plucked his pinky finger into his ear, completely unbothered by his gloves.

“If you’re wondering about the mask, no, I am not taking it off. I don’t care if you’re some celebrated knight or just a poor young man stuck under His Majestic-Ass’ hellish rule. So, don’t even _think_ of threatening me to do anything.”, he stretched his arms over his head. Kinrou could’ve sworn he saw something black peek under his sleeve, but it was gone too fast for him to see, “Trust me, I have ways to make a grown man weep.”

Kinrou stayed silent, not sure where this was going.

“But, I guess I could at least let you know what to call me, as you said. I may be insensitive to some things, but I am at least somewhat polite. So,”, Kinrou didn’t understand how he could tell, but he had a feeling the man was staring right into his eyes, “you may call me Senkuu, young knight.”

In a split second, the man, or Senkuu, had already turned around and began to bang a hammer into whatever he had been working on until know.

Kinrou exhaled inwardly and looked for a spot in the strange room from where he could supervise his charge. He sat down on the floor after not finding anymore chairs and set about to fiddle with some hay draped across the carpet.

The banging subsided into quiet whirring once again, and Kinrou wanted nothing more than to fall asleep for the first time in three days.

\---

“So how was your new job? Did you get any special reward? Was the witch as beautiful as the rumors? Or was she actually ugly? Oh, she didn’t turn you into cattle so I guess she might even be kind.”

His brother and him were walking around the fortress’ perimeters, scouting the outside of the walls while saluting some knights in guard duty. Kinrou was granted some rest from his ‘babysitting’, as Senkuu called it, because the King requested an audience with said man. He had no knowledge of what those two might converse about, seeing as Senku seemed adamant on insulting the King as much as he could, while the King talked about him as though he was some kind of rare magical creature that needed special handling.

So now Kinrou was left with patrolling with his younger brother. Which, even though it was less demanding than sitting on the floor for ten hours with a strange masked person, it wasn’t exactly leisure.

“Ginrou, first of all, I’m not getting rewards out of this mission. The King’s approval of my conduct is enough.”, he ignored his brother’s gagging gesture, “And second, the witch wasn’t even a witch. They weren’t even a _she_.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The ‘witch’ was only a man, and unless you count working on strange contraptions ‘witchcraft’, he was nothing like the rumors you love so much.”

“What?!”, Ginrou jumped on a ledge, using his lance as a way of balancing himself, “No way! So your super important duty is just taking care of some dude?!”

Kinrou jabbed his brother on the side lightly enough so his equilibrium wavered. Ginrou almost fell, but he brought himself back into the center after swinging his arms about. Kinrou wasn’t sure how his brother was still with the knights. He wasn’t as skilled as him and he wasn’t the bravest, but Kinrou liked to think he enjoyed the work at least a bit.

“Oh come on, Kinrou! Aren’t you at least disturbed by the whole idea?!”

“There is no reason for me to be disturbed, his safety is simply my duty.”

“Yeah, but your duty should be protecting some beautiful lady from across the land, or some conveniently widowed queen. A _young_ queen. With golden locks… and a supple chest–“

Kinrou placed his lance under Ginrou’s foot, causing him to trip over himself. Before he could collide with the ground, Kinrou grabbed the back of his arm to bring him off the ledge.

“Ginrou, stop with your lustful thoughts, they are unbecoming of a knight.”

Ginrou fidgeted with his helmet so he could actually see through it, and Kinrou could tell he was pouting.

“They may be unbecoming for you, but I’ll let you know that _any_ of our fellow knights would want the same thing. It gets boring with only men around.”

After saluting the guards on the main entrance, a huge wooden door that would bridge the town with the castle over the moat once it was opened, they restarted their round once more. Some workers inside the castle grounds recognized them, especially Kinrou, and waved at the brothers. Ginrou waved back excitedly, but Kinrou kept more to himself and nodded at them. Some servant ladies tending the gardens shouted various hellos at the pair, when they both saw a small figure running toward them.

Kinrou couldn’t tell who it was from afar, even though they were closing in fast. His eyes had grown worse over the years. He didn’t tell anyone however, he felt it would hinder his work.

But as soon as the person shouted a tiny ‘hi!’, he immediately knew it was Suika.

“Hello, Sir Kinrou, Sir Ginrou! How are you?”, she scurried at them, bowing rather clumsily. Her face was covered by a flimsy veil, and according to her mother, it was because she suffered from some type of curse. Aside from that, though, her unruly blonde hair, dirty dress and bubbly personality separated her from the rest of the child servants.

“We’re both well, miss Suika. How is your mother?”, Kinrou took off his helmet and kneeled in order to greet the girl face to face. He saw Ginrou do the same from the corner of his eye.

“She’s feeling better! The soup Yuzuriha made for her really helped!”, she smiled under the cloth, “Have you gone on any adventures yet?”

Kinrou chuckled quietly but before he could answer, Ginrou had already taken it upon himself to recount everything.

“Oh, you know the usual, miss Suika. We guard, guard, guard and guard _again_ until there’s not much to be done aside from all the guarding.”, he swatted his hand dismissively. His face then lit up in sudden glee, “But this guy has been assigned the duty of protecting a witch! And according to him, she’s as beautiful as the legends say—”

Kinrou slammed his fist into Ginrou’s unprotected head, _lightly_. That shut him up, but that still didn’t dissuade Suika’s excitement.

“A witch?! Sir Kinrou, are you protecting a witch? Can she do magic? Can she sparkle like starlight and talk with flowers? Can she cure disease? Can she—”

“I’m sorry, miss Suika. But everything my brother said is untrue. The one I have been assigned to protect is just a normal human, a young man in fact.”, he held out his hand for a second, making sure she wouldn’t flinch from the offer of contact. She sometimes did that when the maids brushed her hair, or when she played with the other kids. When she didn’t, he placed it atop of her head to pat her, “He is indeed a very… unconventional person, but he assured me he had no magic in his blood.”

He couldn’t see her face, but her shoulders where no longer shaking with enthusiasm. She appeared to be calmer. He hoped she wasn’t disappointed, even though Senkuu’s lack of magic had nothing to do with him personally.

“Oh… Well, there must be a reason why you’re protecting him! You’re a very strong knight, Sir Kinrou!”, she giggled, “If I were a princess, would you protect me too?”

Kinrou smiled. He rarely did that, for most of his smiles were reserved to when his brother was actually competent and when he made Suika happy. And he made sure she was happy every time they spent time together.

“Of course. I would protect you with my life, whether you were a princess or not miss Suika.”

He made a reverence while kneeling and smiled even more when he heard Suika laughing wholeheartedly. They had to stop their little performance when a voice called for the girl across the garden. It was Minami, one of the servants. Suika apologized to them, bowed, and ran towards the older woman, her veil flailing with the breeze.

Since they had no more business in the gardens, both brothers continued their patrol. Once they arrived at the stables, they split up, Ginrou having to head over to tend to his horse for the rest of the rosy afternoon.

Kinrou finally ended his round when the sun was already hiding beneath the horizon, painting the castle grounds in a bright, red hue.

He saluted the night watch and walked over to his quarters. While strolling through the numerous hallways, he came across the kitchen doors and nodded at Yuzuriha when she waved upon noticing him.

And finally, after a long day of not doing much, he arrived at his room. He stripped off his armor and after stretching on the floor for a few minutes, went to bed.

He dreamt of beautiful witches and metal masks.

\---

A few days later, he found himself standing once again in front of Senkuu’s strange room. Having already stepped inside and knowing what to expect, he was no longer concerned or nervous about his duty, rather, he was ready to take on whatever was waiting for him.

Turns out that his confidence weighted nothing compared to what he found inside.

Senkuu was, once again, sitting at his desk. This time, though, he didn’t seem to be working on anything. He was laying quite still over scattered parchment and ink, causing Kinrou to panic. But as soon as he caught the soft raise of his chest and his silent puffs of breath, he sighed in relief.

His charge was just asleep. There was nothing to worry about.

Kinrou went over to his usual sitting spot, where he had placed a few pillows he had found in the room so he could lay down more comfortably. He was about to sit, when he noticed Senkuu didn’t seem to be wearing his mask this time. The hideous thing was resting next to a particularly tall tower of books. Kinrou hadn’t seen those books before, now that he thought about it.

His curiosity nagged at him, while he placed his helmet on the ground, while he knit some leftover hay from last time and while he counted all the cracks in the ceiling.

He huffed at himself. He couldn’t succumb to such foolish behavior. He was on duty and had no reason or benefit on acting on his curiosity.

He kept arguing with himself for the next ten minutes, before he heard a mall squirm as the man on the desk woke up.

Senkuu stretched, the popping of his shoulders could be heard even from where Kinrou was sitting, and glanced around the room.

He practically leapt in surprise when he saw Kinrou.

“Holy— What on Earth—“, he sputtered. Kinrou couldn’t see his face very clearly, the blur in his eyes getting worse each moon, but he could spot red in Senkuu’s widened eyes, “How _long_ have you been there?!”

Kinrou stood up, bowing gently, “I haven’t been here long at all. I have just arrived. You were asleep and I didn’t wish to disturb you.”

Senkuu breathed in deeply, regaining some of his composure. Upon finally calming down, he turned towards his desk and picked up his mask. Kinrou thought he was going to put it on again, but he just held it in his hands, fingers brushing against it almost obsessively.

“You should’ve at least woken me up. The next time something like this happens, wake me up, your knightness.”, he grumbled under his breath, “I hate it when people come inside my laboratory without my permission.”

Kinrou stood still, a bit confused by that statement, “Laboratory? Aren’t these your quarters, Si— Senkuu?”, his charge had told him to call him just by his name, so Kinrou had to mentally kick himself whenever he referred to him as ‘Sir’.

The man just shrugged nonchalantly, putting his mask on. His voice rung inside it, reminding Kinrou of how Ginrou would speak into the kitchen’s cauldrons when they were little, “I _consider_ it to be my new laboratory, since my old one was burned down. But no, my room is the one across from this one.”, Senkuu scratched his chin, “I think this used to be a storage room. I had some guards bring some of my rescued things since I was so bored.”

He patted the mountain of books, and Kinrou wished he knew what was so interesting about their contents that Senkuu would request them back.

Senkuu stared at him from behind the mask, glassy gaze undecipherable. He then stood up for the first time since they met. He was shorter than Kinrou, only coming up to his chin, but his stance could’ve belonged to the most confident of heroes. Senkuu then held out one of the books.

“You want to know what’s in these?”

Kinrou’s eyes widened, “Uh, pardon me, Si— I mean, Senkuu. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“You weren’t prying, you were just curious, right?”

He shifted in his place. Senkuu somehow knew what he was thinking, and he wasn’t sure if he liked that.

“Yes… But even if I’d borrow that book, I wouldn’t be able to read it.”

“Huh? You’re a knight, aren’t you? Its very rare for knights to be illiterate. If I was King, though I’d never want to be, I’d make sure everyone knew the alphabet at least.”, Senkuu waved his hand around, maybe hoping to elaborate something that went over Kinrou’s head.

“It is not rare for some knights to hail from commoner families.”

Senkuu’s mouth opened as if to say something, but then closed it.

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think of that. The knights that brought me here read the cover of the books and made fun of them, so maybe I had the wrong idea.”

Kinrou listened to his charge complain about how roughly he was treated while transported to the castle. He didn’t know the complete story behind Senkuu’s capture, or why he was stuffed inside this room most of the time. His mind went to the audiences the King and Senkuu had from time to time, but it wasn’t his place to investigate further on that.

For some reason, Senkuu was here. And the King had no intention to let him go.

The pale haired man rambled for a while, using words and terms Kinrou had never heard before. Maybe they were in a different language? They were complicated, and they made his head hurt.

He needed to change the subject.

“Excuse me, Senkuu, but could you tell me what that book is called?”

Senkuu turned to look at him. Kinrou noticed that he had to strain his neck slightly to actually lock eyes with him. Feeling like the other's comfort was more important than his own, he leaned down.

He might’ve heard Senkuu draw in a breath, but he ignored it.

Senkuu stood still for a quick second, before walking back a few steps so as to create some distance between them, “It’s called _De Sphaera_. It’s a book on astronomy.”

Kinrou blinked, “Astronomy? What does that mean?”

He heard Senku inhale deeply.

“Oh, please sit down. This is going to be a long conversation and you don’t want to be standing while we have it.”

\---

They spent the rest of the afternoon inside the makeshift ‘laboratory’, Kinrou sitting on Senkuu’s chair while the latter stood and explained everything with drawings and symbols. Kinrou had been reluctant to take Senkuu’s seat from him, but the other insisted that he needed to simply sit and pay attention. He then launched himself into a long and detailed explanation of the planets and celestial objects surrounding Earth; on the Sun, the Moon, and the countless stars orbiting on a concentrated system.

At first, he explained everything with their assigned terms, but once he saw he immediately lost Kinrou when he did that, he reached for a quill and paper and begun describing every aspect of known space with poorly made artwork.

Kinrou learned most of what Senkuu said was written in that book, he asked questions after he made sure he was allowed, and his inquiries caused Senkuu to have some of his own, which caused the other man to mumble to himself excitedly and shout out possible answers.

Now the sun was beginning to set, and the desk was covered in more paper, but this time with diagrams of stars, constellations and unending questions. The chaos bothered Kinrou, since he was always used to picking up Ginrou’s messes, but to Senkuu, the added disaster seemed to fuel him more. It was easy to say that Kinrou was completely out of his comfort zone, but seeing his charge enjoy himself filled him with satisfaction that usually came with a duty well done.

Senkuu sighed, but Kinrou could hear a smile in his lips.

“It’s been so long since I rambled like that. Honestly, I feel rejuvenated.”

“You did talk a lot, Senkuu. Would you like some water?”

“Nah, it’s fine.”, Senkuu wrote some more words in his notes, scribbling things that even if Kinrou knew how to read, it would be difficult for him to fully understand, “I have to say, you make for a surprising conversation partner…”, he trailed off.

Senkuu raised his head suddenly, looking at Kinrou in silence.

“Shit, I just realized, I never asked your name.”

Kinrou felt his eyes widen, and before he could stop it, a small snort burst out of his nose.

His face reddened immediately. How dare he laugh at something Senkuu, his charge, said? That was disrespectful in so many ways. He begun to apologize when he heard the metallic voice underneath the mask laugh.

“I know, after the whole ‘call me whatever’ dilemma, how did I forget to ask you your own name? I’m the worst. Oh, damn.”, Senkuu reached under the mask to wipe a tear from his eyes, even taking the mask off completely in the end.

From what Kinrou could barely see, Senkuu’s hands were smaller than his own, but his fingers were long, like the musicians’ that sometimes entertained the King’s Court. His sleeves, previously made with cream fabric, were now tainted with dark specs of ink. His face was thin, and his eyes… he saw a flash of red last time, but now he couldn’t really tell what color they were.

“Why are you scrunching your face like that?”

Kinrou straightened, back now taut and devoid of the calm he had experienced until now. He scrunched up his eyes when he wanted to see something better from far away. He did that on instinct, but he refrained from doing that while with someone. If they noticed, they would realize he had the eye disease and would immediately banish him from his duties. He absolutely did not want that, and the fact that Senkuu _could_ know terrified him.

“I… Do that when I’m… really focused.” It wasn’t the truth, but it wasn’t a lie either.

He was an awful liar.

Senkuu stared at him thoughtfully. He then brought up two fingers.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

Kinrou was confounded, but he answered, “Two.”

“Okay. Now, what did I draw here?”, Senkuu scribbled a shape onto a loose piece of parchment and held it next to his face.

Now Kinrou was both confused and very worried. He couldn’t tell what the blur in his eyes was supposed to be.

“Um…”, he stayed quiet, knowing he couldn’t possibly know what it was without blindly guessing.

“Your eyes are damaged, right?”

Kinrou frowned, looking down and hating how he could see a bit more clearly with the scrunch of his eyes. There was no way he could deny it, his actions spoke too loudly.

“I can help you with that, if you’d like.”

Kinrou’s eyes shot up, coming face to face with the image of Senkuu scratching the back of his neck, almost as if curing diseases was a normal occurrence to him.

“It’s nothing much, but I can make some glass to replace the damaged cornea and fix it a little bit. It will help you see better, but you’ll have to wear that glass somehow…”, Senkuu then went into one of his inner musings, completely unaware of Kinrou’s shock.

“Huh?”

Senkuu glanced at him, and his face lit up with an idea. “Just, wait a second.”, he searched through his mountain of equipment, until he found a piece of stray glass in the shape of a long triangle. It was very sharp and dangerous, but Senkuu managed to handle it with extreme care up until he handed it to Kinrou.

“This is something I had saved from the last time I tried doing something like this. Curing eyesight, I mean. It was an experiment based on the telescope the whole scientific community has been gushing about from the north— and if I’m correct, lenses like these might permanently fix your eyes.”

Kinrou stared at the shard of glass in fear. He then saw Senkuu’s hands cup his own and guide them towards his face, the glass still in his hold. Finally, when it was just in front of his face, he gasped.

The first thing he saw were Senkuu’s eyes.

They were red. Maroon. They shone with the afternoon sun and with the young man’s own curiosity. They had small golden specks if he focused on them for too long, and they were staring intently back at him. Senkuu’s lips curled into a mischievous smile, once again unaware of Kinrou’s reactions.

“Well? Was I right? How many fingers am I holding up now?”

Kinrou hesitated before answering this time. They kept doing exercises like this for a few more minutes, until the sun was no longer reaching inside the room’s walls. After confirming that yes, the glass worked, he went on a tangent about the modifications he’d have to make, how they would stay on Kinrou’s face, the help he would need to make his little project work, and many more scrambled sentences that didn’t register completely in the knight’s mind.

Kinrou then stood up and upon seeing the time, decided to head outside to guard the door.

Senkuu’s voice stopped him from leaving, though.

“I forgot. You didn’t tell me your name in the end.”

Kinrou’s mouth opened and closed several times.

“My name is Kinrou… Senkuu.”

The other man smiled and Kinro regretted removing the glass from his face, wanting to see it clearly once more: the crooked teeth, the small dimples, the fearless, _beautiful_ aspect of it.

He surprised himself with his raging feelings.

“Nice to meet you, Kinrou.”

Kinrou bowed and promptly left the room.

Ginrou was right. His charge possessed unimaginable beauty.

He might as well be a witch.

He had Kinrou under a spell, that’s for sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for coming this far! I started writing this and thought of a whole plot spanning multiple chapters, but I'm tired and stopped here. 
> 
> Hope you liked my first oneshot in a while!


End file.
